Doppler effect and sonic boom in graphene devices opens new direction in quantum electronics research

A team including researchers from The University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute (NGI) has revealed that sonic boom and Doppler-shifted sound waves can be created in a graphene transistor, giving new insights into this advanced material and its potential for use in nanoscale electronic technologies. When a police car speeds past you with its siren blaring, you hear a distinct change in the frequency of the siren's noise. This is the Doppler effect. When a jet aircraft's speed exceeds the speed of sound (about 760 mph), the pressure it exerts upon the air produces a shock wave which can be heard as a loud supersonic boom or thunderclap. This is the Mach effect. Scientists from universities in Loughborough, Nottingham, Manchester, Lancaster and Kansas (US) have discovered that a quantum mechanical version of these phenomena occurs in an electronic transistor made from high-purity graphene. Their new publication: " Graphene's non-equilibrium fermions reveal Doppler-shifted magnetophonon resonances accompanied by Mach supersonic and Landau velocity effects " was published on 4 November.